James Buchanan & Co

James Buchanan and company was established by the eponymous James Buchanan in 1884. Born in Canada, his career in whisky began at the age of 30, having worked for Glasgow shipping agent, William Sloane & Co, for sixteen years. He cut his teeth working as an agent for Charles Mackinlay & Co in London, before setting up his own company with financial assistance from W.P. Lowrie. Buchanan’s experience in London had illuminated to him the demand for a blended Scotch better suited to the English palate, one smoother and less-peated than those currently available.

The result was The Buchanan Blend, which he successfully marketed through his old contacts in London, eventually seeing it stocked across the city, including the bar at the House of Commons. A shrewd marketer, Buchanan sought to highlight the brand’s lofty clientele by and renamed it Buchanan’s House of Commons, however his customers had other ideas and it was better known by its nickname, “Black & White,” on account of its distinctive label style. The company later registered this as a trademark in 1904.

The popularity of Buchanan’s blends traversed even further up the corridors of power however, and he was awarded a royal warrant from Queen Victoria in 1895. A decade of successes, it also saw the opening of the company’s first distillery, Glentauchers. By this point, James Buchanan & Company was well-established as one of the nation’s “big five” blenders, however the cloud of the Distillers Company Limited, established in 1877, hung menacingly above them. The five worked together to compete with the creeping monopoly of DCL, and initially found some success. Buchanan’s moved swiftly following the infamous Pattison Crash of 1898, acquiring former financier W.P. Lowrie and its Convalmore distillery. Unfortunately, where the big five made gains, so too did DCL, and the conglomerate of Lowland grain distillers soon came to control 70% of the blended Scotch market.

In order to fend off the threat of DCL’s acquisition policy, James Buchanan opted to form an alliance with former rivals, John Dewar & Sons, creating a holding company called Scotch Whisky Brands that later renamed Buchanan-Dewar. The new company bought new distilleries in Port Ellen, Benrinnes and Lochruan, but its resistance to DCL lasted only a decade, and Buchanan-Dewar joined the distilling giant alongside John Walker & Sons in 1925. Despite its steely grip on the market, DCL actually allowed its subsidiaries to operate with a great deal of freedom, and each was able to continue to express its own personality. James Buchanan’s blends continued to reach new levels of popularity, and it marketed its first single malt brands in the 1970s, first for Glentauchers and later, Dalwhinnie, to which DCL had granted them the license.

The loose structure of DCL came to be seen as mismanagement however, and over-production in the 1970s turned to financial turmoil in the following decade. The company was saved by a takeover from Guinness, who merged it with Arthur Bell & Sons to become United Distillers. A priority of the new entity was to reel in its subsidiaries, reclaiming the licenses of its distilleries and taking closer control of the distribution of their products. It relaunched Buchanan’s Dalwhinnie brand as part of its Classic Malts of Scotland in 1988, the 15-year-old being the only of the six expressions it contained to have existed prior to its introduction. The James Buchanan & Company name disappeared from its label quickly however, with the company registered dormant in 1990. It had remained so since, however United Distillers and successor, Diageo, have continued to enjoy great success in marketing both the Buchanan’s and Black & White blends.